Deep drawing properties of lightweight steel/polymer/steel sandwich composites

Due to the wide range of different properties – such as high strength, stiffness, high damping capacity, vibration resistance and the lightweight – metal/polymer/metal sandwich composites find their application as various body-parts in the automotive industry. Nevertheless the forming potential of layered sandwiches under different loading is not well studied. In this research the formability of 316L/PP–PE/316L sandwich composites with different sample size and core thickness was studied for the deep drawing process using two flat punches of different size and shape. It could be stated that the forming behaviour of the three layered sandwiches is strongly influenced by the geometry of the punch and the core thickness. The results were analysed photogrammetrically and metallographically.